Moving Toward Abstraction – the Lecture

Today is the day that I give my talk to Museum London. I thought that I would summarize this hour presentation:

INTRODUCTION – Who am I? Give a background of my development as an artist BIO

I have been working as a professional artist since 2001.  Artist member of Gallery 96 in Stratford, elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists,  former visual art department head and teacher in secondary schools in both Peel and the Thames Valley Board.  Ph.D in arts and educational administration, former director of the Peel School for the Arts.   Exhibited in several juried shows in in Toronto.  Launched my abstract art direction at a one person show called “Into the Heart of Abstraction”.

Mentors:  Wm Ronald and Harold Klunder.  Picasso!

10 second introduction of my art: My abstract landscapes capture the elemental forms inherent in the natural countryside. The substratum for these works is sheet aluminum which is revealed as an integral shining part of the design ideas.

LET’S TALK ABOUT ABSTRACTION  – reducing, reshaping the natural world for expressive purpose.  An example is tonal vs. atonal music.  Atonal music does not have a tonal centre.

Spacial and visually demanding confrontations that challenge the viewer to respond.  Question constructs and interventions.

SAMPLE PAINTINGS:   A critique of the 2 paintings – Description, Formal Analysis, Interpretation, Evaluation or Judgment, Rank according to others.

Painting #1 – Afterimage Horizon (image left behind after exposure to bright light)

Painting #2 – Whisk (incorporating air into a mixture)

Conclusion:  Don’t forget why I am there – as an expert in Abstract art.  In order to assist my audience,  what are their needs?  Ask questions of the audience and involve them.  Thanks!

Post Painterly Abstraction

More research for my lecture:

Post Painterly Abstraction. Post Painterly Abstraction, or Colour-field/Colorfield Painting. Phrase first used by the critic Clement Greenberg to distinguish the abstract painting of the 1960s from works associated with the abstract expressionist movement of the 1950s (see abstract expressionism). The production of the abstract expressionists involved a strong personal emotionalism, a painterly quality, and occasionally, as in the works of Willem de Kooning, elements of cubism. The artists working in the various styles of post-painterly abstraction moved toward a more impersonal and austerely intellectual aesthetic. In their works they dealt with what they considered to be the fundamental formal elements of abstract painting: pure, unmodulated areas of color; flat, two-dimensional space; monumental scale; and the varying shape of the canvas itself. Among the specific trends encompassed by the term post-painterly abstraction are minimalism and colour-field painting. Painters associated with the movement include Ellsworth Kelly, Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, Frank Stella, and Morris Louis. Typical COLORFIELD PAINTING artists are: Rothko, Newman and Still.

The above definition defines my work for me. My work is a combination of abstract expressionism and post painterly abstraction! This insight is quite important for me because I can now justify some of the constructs . The combination of the two kinds of abstraction enable me to move in and out of emotionalism and intellectualism.

Moving Toward Abstraction 3.

The union of Earth, Air, and Space, are depicted by the flowing energy of Shape in this painting called Whisk. The whisking of ingredients holds things together to show the intrinsic character of nourishing life. This shape reaches out and embodies Life from the smallest form to our own humanity.

Moving Toward Abstraction 2.

Many viewers, when faced with abstraction are placed in spacial and visually demanding confrontations that challenge the viewers to respond. My work enables the viewer to question my constructs and interventions. Many of my works show the Earth as being a solid foundation showing strength and majestic nature. Space is an emptiness which is limitless. The fleeting of clouds disperse without a trace. In the following painting called Horizon, the exaggeration of the separation between Earth and Space makes the viewer aware of the separation between the solid foundation of the Earth to the boundless Sky.

Moving Toward Abstraction

It has been awhile since I have last posted. I will be giving a talk to Museum London’s Art Rental called Moving Toward Abstraction on January 17th, 2008.

This topic intrigues me because of my search for expression through my artwork which is becoming more and more abstract. Resplendent (dawn) which is reworked from an earlier piece, gives me the opportunity to show my perception of the outer world. I am conjuring up an independent world in which my memories intermingle.  I will publish the two other pieces that I am working on.